S.A. Government gives go-ahead to A.N.C. rally

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 8

S.A. Government gives go-ahead to A.N.C. rally

NZPA-AP

Soweto

The South African Government has agreed to allow the first African National Congress rally in 29 years, and activists said yesterday that newly freed black leaders would address the nation at the gathering.

The rally was scheduled for October 29. It would be the first rally by A.N.C. leaders since the group was banned in 1960, a year before the organisation’s military wing was formed by Nelson Mandela and six of the seven A.N.C. figures freed from prison last Sunday.

“Apart from being a welcoming party, the rally is going to be an occasion at which our leaders will be making a major address to the nation on a whole range of issues,” the secretary general of the National Union of Mineworkers, Cyril Ramaphosa, said.

He spoke at a news conference near the home of the senior A.N.C. leader, Walter Sisulu. The black, green, and gold A.N.C. flag — legal but seldom tolerated by the police — flew from a pole above Mr Sisulu’s roof. Mr Sisulu and some of the other freed prisoners met yesterday with the Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu, at an impromptu birthday celebration for Mr Sisulu’s activist wife, Albertina, aged 72. Mr Ramaphosa said the National Reception Committee had not actually sought Government permission for the rally, to be held in a new soccer stadium

near Soweto.

But letters had been sent to the President F. W. De Klerk, the Minister of justice and the chief magistrate of Johannesburg informing them of the plans. The Department of Justice issued a statement saying an application to hold the meeting had been approved by the chief magistrate.

Mr Ramaphosa, informed during the news conference of the Government approval, said, “They approved it because they knew we would give them trouble if they didn’t.”

Murphy Morobe, the spokesman for the banned United Democratic Front said speakers would deal with issues including negotiations with the Government. He said they would also discuss violence in Natal, the predominantly Zulu province where A.N.C. and U.D.F. supporters have fought against followers of Inkatha President Mangosuthu Buthelezi for power in the black townships. Mr Ramaphosa said an application had been made to the Government to lift restrictions on the former A.N.C. national chairman, Govan Mbeki, so that he could join his colleagues at the

rally. Mr Mbeki was freed from prison in 1987 but the Government banned two rallies he was to address then restricted him to his hometown near Port Elizabeth and prohibited him from speaking in public or talking to the press. Mr Mbeki’s son Thabo is a senior leader of the A.N.C. in exile in Lusaka, Zambia. Mr De Klerk, meanwhile, spoke yesterday to the Transvaal provincial congress of the ruling National Party, but his comments on negotiations with blacks for a new constitution reiterated previous statements.

He said that before the Government could consider lifting restrictions such as the three-year-old state of emergency, it would have to receive promises from the A.N.C. and other groups that they would end all violence. That drew a negative reaction from some activists who are organising the activities of the freed A.N.C. leaders.

Mr Morobe said internal opposition groups are responsible and peaceful and it would be foolhardy for them to make such guarantees. He said it is Rightwing organisations and elements of the security forces that often cause violence.